Our third day and finally sun! While Alyssa decided to hang out at the pool, Will and I decided to take a drive along West Maui and check out some of the highlights.
That night was our Hawaiian Luau. But take it from me, look at the reviews for the luau before you book. This time I just went for convenience. Alyssa hadn’t been to a luau before and it’s something that you should do at least once in Hawaii. Our luau was moved indoors because of a threat of bad weather. So, we moved into a hotel banquet room. I really felt like I was at a conference banquet instead of a luau. Aside from the total lack of ambience, it didn’t appear that this luau had many of the other items that really make a good luau. So, I can’t give my recommendation to the Kaanapali Beach Club Luau.
Round two of our sunrise attempt. Advance reservations were sold out, but they release additional tickets 2 days prior at 4pm. So, got online promptly at 4 and got us our reservation. Something that’s good to know in case you didn’t get a reservation prior to coming to Maui or if you decide to give sunrise viewing another chance. This time we got a great sunrise. Will and I hiked the .2 miles up for our view. Alyssa chose to stay in the warmth of the car as long as possible and therefore just went to the viewing area by the parking lot. She was treated to the Hawaiian sunrise song and group hug from one of the tour groups. Upon finding out she was from New Mexico, the tour guide asked her if we were allowed to travel to other states. Allowed?? Makes you wonder exactly where the infamous wall is going up, doesn’t it?
We were then off to drive the road to Hana. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s considered one of the most beautiful drives in the world and comes with over 600 curves and over 50 bridges most of which are one lane. I had heard about a CD that people use when driving the road to Hana to help guide you and point out interesting stops along the way. Well, times have changed and there is an app for that. We ended up getting the #Shaka Guide. The app itself is free and the Road to Hana tour was like $7 bucks. I highly recommend doing some type of guide. The app tour was great for us. Keeps track of where you are on the road by your GPS. The app will tell you look on the left there is a pull-out, park there. Or skip that waterfall, there’s a better one a little further on. It also has interesting historical tidbits and plays Hawaiian music. We all felt we had a much better experience then trying to follow along in a guide book or just stopping where you saw others were stopped. The waterfalls were overflowing from all the recent rains, but it was a beautiful sunny day for our drive.
We also explored the lava tube on our Hana trip, tried some coconut ice cream and made it to the black sand beach.
Other random waterfalls and scenic views from our day to Hana. When hiking to the waterfalls, we found our water shoes worked-out the best. The ground is muddy and wet and the water shoes kept a pretty firm grip.
We also made it back to catch a nice sunset as well.
